North America

The FunWorks is a digital library of career exploration resources for youth ages 11 to 15. The FunWorks provides “real world” experiences and uses children’s current interests and passions, such as music and sports, to help them explore exciting future careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The site was designed for and by children—over 300 young people have participated in the design and launch of this one-of-a-kind collection from the initial concept to design, usability testing, and launch.

For the last 30 years, at least three generations of women and men have benefited from gender equity legislation and programs. The importance and impact of this work, however, is often invisible to more recent generations who may take these rights for granted. Living Life is recording the voices and experiences of the pioneers who, taking the lessons of earlier women’s struggles to heart and drawing from the civil rights movement, built the foundation for the gains women and men have made over the last 30 years.

EDC serves as technology advisor in the development of an online toolkit designed to aid afterschool educators in the integration of technology and academic content. SEDL’s technical assistance effort is funded by the U.S. Department of Education to support their 21st Century Community Learning Center program, a $1 billion effort to fund afterschool programming.

VOICES for Youth recruits and trains full-time volunteers from an interdenominational network of faith-based organizations in Cleveland, Ohio. The volunteers provide comprehensive mentoring services to adjudicated youth. EDC has developed training modules and conducts training sessions for volunteers affiliated with the project. EDC is also developing a report that reviews the type and extent of services faith-based organizations in the Greater Cleveland area provide to youth.

This project addressed gaps in the current state assessment system and explored the following questions: Where are the gaps in the assessment system? Who are the students affected by these gaps? What are the appropriate assessment systems for students in the gaps? After answering these questions, the project developed and piloted an assessment prototype to address the problem and meet student needs. Completed research studies are available on the project Web site.

EDC is writing a manual on pandemic preparedness for schools in an effort to protect the health of students, staff, and families across the globe. It will be distributed through the World Health Organization. The manual is intended to help administrators and teachers with pandemic planning and response in schools. It emphasizes the need for school-based efforts to prevent the spread of influenza.

EDC is developing a web-based course on pandemic preparedness and response for communities. The primary audience is local decision-makers and practitioners, with additional modules for specific audiences.